


The Songbirds Are Singing Like They Know The Score

by sparkinside (boomersoonerash)



Series: 25 Days of Ficmas [4]
Category: Hanson (Band), Michelle Branch (Musician)
Genre: 25 Days of Fic-mas, Angst, Break Up, Canon Compliant, F/M, Heartbreak, NaNoWriMo 2017, Pregnancy, Sad, TTA Era, Teen Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-04
Updated: 2017-12-04
Packaged: 2019-02-10 14:59:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12914343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boomersoonerash/pseuds/sparkinside
Summary: Taylor and Michelle have a conversation that he knows will break her heart in the end.





	The Songbirds Are Singing Like They Know The Score

**Author's Note:**

> Day 4 of 25  
> Prompt: Guilt

Taylor sighed nervously as he sat in the studio where he and his brothers had been slaving away for months on an album that seemed like it would never get finished, or truly even started.

His nerves were building as he awaited the arrival of the girl he had called to meet him here. A girl he knew probably thought this was just another songwriting session when it was anything but.

Which, just the thought of that made guilt swell up inside of him knowing he was about to break someone's heart.

The heart of the person that he had foolishly believed that he could one day settle down with, start a real relationship even if it was a silly idea, because could two musicians ever truly work together? He highly doubted it but his young naive self had wanted it.

Now though because of his own actions he'd never get it. He'd have a life with someone else and be tied to another girl all because there was a baby on the way.

A baby he hadn't planned for but then again neither had Natalie. They had just been two careless teenagers who thought they'd be fine in the heat of the moment.

The world had decided to show them otherwise.

Coming out of his thoughts as he heard the studio door open, he forced a smile as Michelle walked into the room looking none the wiser and, of course that was true.

She had thought she was his only because why would he tell her he was still fooling around with a girl he met on tour, as a backup, in case whatever they had fell through?

He wouldn't and he hadn't and now his mistakes were costing the both of them.

"Taylor?" Michelle questioned as she sat down next to where Taylor was sitting on the floor. "Are you okay?"

Taking a deep breath Taylor shook his head no as he did his best to not look at her fully. Already feeling ashamed for what he had to tell her.

"No," he admitted watching confusion settle on her lovely face. "I have to tell you something and you're not going to like it."

Michelle nodded her head though she still looked confused, "So you didn't invite me here for a songwriting session that leads to sex?" she questioned and even though she laughed it was an uneasy one. "I knew I should have done what my gut told me and stayed home. There was something in your voice on the phone."

Taylor frowned at the last of Michelle's words. Hating that his own voice had betrayed him.

"So, what is it you have to tell me?" Michelle continued. "What is making you not okay?"

"There's another girl," Taylor started knowing it would be easy to start from there. "Her name is Natalie and I met her during our last tour. We stayed in contact though it's been rocky," he spoke watching as some of the confusion left Michelle's face. "I guess I kind of have been seeing the both of you behind the other's back," he confessed wincing at his own words.

He knew he really was an awful person for keeping Natalie as a backup just in case whatever this had been with Michelle fell through. Because of that, he was now the reason why he'd have to lose Michelle.

He was his own worst enemy.

"And is this your way of telling me you chose her?" Michelle asked him, hurt apparent in her tone.

Taylor feeling his heart breaking as he nodded his head yes. "It's not because I want to choose her though," he revealed as he swallowed a lump in his throat. "I have to."

"You have to?" Michelle asked him her, voice raising slightly. "How do you have to choose her?"

"She's pregnant," Taylor told Michelle as he felt sick even saying the words out loud because they were the first time he had truly said them to someone.

Before now it had been Natalie saying it and then his parents.

"She's pregnant and I have to marry her," Taylor shrugged as he looked down at a hole at the knee of his jeans. "My parents made sure I asked her to marry me and she said yes."

At that revelation Michelle fell silent. A silence Taylor didn't like because some silences could be uncomfortable and this was one of them.

It was uncomfortable and he wished he were anywhere but where he was right now. Then again, he had wished the same thing when he proposed to Natalie too as well as the day his parents told him that hers had called to tell them she was having a baby.

His baby.

"So you didn't want to marry her?" Michelle finally asked and Taylor nodded his head. "Then you could have told your parents you weren't going to."

Taylor let out a bitter laugh at that, realizing then that Michelle would never truly know his parents at all.

"It's more complicated than that," he told her as he shook her head. "And I may not have wanted it but the wind that came in when were alone together on the beach that night. It felt like a sign I was doing the right thing even if I don't love her. Even if I don't want this baby."

Now it was Michelle who laughed as she stood up from where she was sitting. "That's ridiculous," she muttered as if she found what Taylor had said was crazy and Taylor knew it probably was.

But it was what he had to tell himself to keep going through things. That the wind gust was a sign he was doing the right thing by marrying Natalie.

That he was doing right for a baby he wasn't prepared for.

"It's not," Taylor defended as he looked up at Michelle and shook his head. Wanting to stand up and comfort her somehow because she looked distressed. But he knew better than to do that.

Knew it could make things worse.

"Yeah, it is, but whatever Tay," Michelle sighed as she shook her head. "Marry this Natalie girl and tell yourself that you're doing what's right. Live in misery if that's what you want. It's not my place to worry since tonight was your way of telling me we are through," she spoke before turning on her heel and heading for the door.

When she made it to the door though she turned back to face Taylor with a frown on her lips and tears in her eyes. "I was so dumb for letting myself believe we could have had a future together," she told him sadly before shaking her head.

Taylor felt his heartbreak even worse now. Especially when she turned back around and slipped out of the studio, not realizing she was taking so much of his heart with her.

Not even realizing that he too had once seen a future with her.

*****

"How'd it go at the studio?" Natalie questioned as soon as Taylor came inside the rental house, and Taylor only looked over at her with a painted on smile.

Being reminded that he had lied to her about why he was going to the studio. Had told her it was to write because he couldn't tell her it had been to go and meet Michelle.

"It went good," Taylor lied as he walked to sit down beside her on the couch. Closing his eyes when she leaned in to leave a kiss on his cheek. "How were you, here by yourself?" he asked once he had opened his eyes. "I know the morning sickness has been all day sickness for you."

Natalie shrugged, "It was okay," she sighed with a shake of her head. "Zac made sure I stayed hydrated with water and fluids," she told him and that information shocked Taylor because Zac was rarely so attentive.

He barely stayed hydrated himself half the time.

"I'll have to thank him for that later," Taylor said knowing he would.

It was the least he could do and maybe it'd do him some good being more thankful to people. Maybe he'd stop messing up his life that way.

A lesson learned too late.


End file.
